Monday, November 08, 2010

How Now Brown Cow?

So here we find ourselves sitting at a lowly 5-5 and needing a win over Auburn or Georgia Tech to secure a bid to a pitiful, yet important bowl game. Important because we need the extra 21 practice days. We travel to the Plains to face undefeated and second ranked Auburn. The Dawgs have won 4 straight over the Tigers but face a tall task this week. A 6'6" 250 pound task named Cam Newton. How the Dawgs are going to slow him down is beyond me. I honestly have no idea. We haven't exactly contained mobile QBs well this season and comparing Newton to the QBs we already faced is like comparing Zenyatta to Kenny Powers' Mexican donkey - which I obligingly provide visually here:

In case there is any confusion regarding the analogy... Newton is the thoroughbred with the number 9 on her blanket.

Short of Cam Newton waking up with his head sewn into the carpet next Saturday morning, the Dawgs will need to score a pile of points to keep this one close. Fortunately, the Dawgs are on a current streak of 5 consecutive games scoring over 30 points for the first time in school history. In the past 5 games, the Dawgs have put up: 41, 43, 44, 31, 55. Meanwhile, Auburn has yielded the following points in their past 5 outings: 34, 43, 17, 31, 24. It looks to me like the Dawgs have a great chance to extend their scoring streak another week, but this is a game that 31 points won't be near enough. To win this game, we may have to score over 50, unless of course, Newton has that afore-mentioned issue with his head and the carpet.

So there is your task armchair OC's and DC's. You need to devise a plan to slow down Newton while putting up 40+ points. How will you do it? AJ Green said he and Aaron Murray were going to shock people in Auburn. Wow! Like the Tigers actually needed bulletin board material. Alright AJ... I believe you are the best receiver in the SEC... now go out and back it up.

Each day this week I will toss out a few wrinkles that I think the Dawgs could employ to achieve a victory on Saturday. For today, Monday, I propose...

1. Practice tackling to the ground all week while using Arthur Lynch (6'5" 256) or Derek Rich (6'5" 265) as Cam Newton.

2. Review film of all of Lesticles Miles's trick plays and plan to use all of them in this game.

3. Practice passing drills in which Murray gets no more than 1.5 seconds to release the ball or he gets a moderate shock from a Hot Shot cattle prod. With Nick Fairley on the other side of the line coupled with the seive formerly known as our O-Line, the extra half-second will be a luxury.

Bernie... I see this as a "go for broke" game for us. If we have ever practiced a fake punt, this may be the game to use it. If we have a punt block play - like the SECCG in 2002, this would be a game to use it. If we, like every other college and professional football team have a 4th and short play in which we load up in the Wham formation and play action pass to the wide open, all alone tight end, this would be the game to use it.

Of course, employing these tactics requires timing. What I don't want to see is anymore Wild Dawg with Ealey faking to Wooten and getting tackled for a 2 yard loss. But if any of our skill players can pass the ball, an old school end around pass, a la, Appelby to Washington - eighty yards, would be welcome.